In today’s competitive business landscape, accurate bookkeeping is essential for success. Rosemary Bookkeeping offers a unique franchise opportunity for those seeking to leverage a proven system and tap into the growing demand for financial services.
This article delves into the key aspects of the Rosemary Bookkeeping franchise based on insights gained directly from the franchisor. From comprehensive training and marketing support to a collaborative network and strong company culture, Rosemary Bookkeeping appears to provide a solid foundation for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Let’s explore what makes this franchise opportunity stand out.
What are the most significant challenges facing your franchisees today, and how does your company support them in overcoming these obstacles?
One of the most significant challenges that newer Rosemary Bookkeeping franchisees face is business development and growing their client base. Often, this is due to the novelty of the concept and their lack of experience in establishing and expanding a business. To address this, both ServiceMaster and I provide extensive support through tailored training and joint planning sessions. These sessions are specific to each franchisee’s location and strengths, ensuring we maximise the effectiveness of their efforts. We work closely with each franchisee to create a customised growth plan that is adaptable, continually assessing progress and adjusting as needed.
In addition to our one-on-one support, we offer ongoing training in all aspects of marketing and sales, focusing on various platforms and strategies to ensure our franchisees are well-equipped to attract clients. This training is complemented by our continuous follow-up, where we analyse successes and pinpoint areas for improvement, ensuring each franchisee stays on track toward their goals.
Beyond direct support, ServiceMaster invests heavily in both online and offline branding for Rosemary Bookkeeping. A key example is our SEO strategy, where we’ve achieved 100% first-page ranking on Google for the search term “Bookkeeping” in the areas where we currently have active franchises. This effort has led to a remarkable 65% increase in incoming website inquiries year over year. Additionally, we invest in PPC advertising and maintain a structured social media strategy to enhance brand awareness. All of this is made possible by our dedicated marketing team, who offer ongoing support in marketing, social media, and public relations to help franchisees thrive.
Can you provide data on the average franchisee revenue and profit margins and how this varies across different locations or franchise models?
Our franchisee base is diverse, ranging from single-person startups to fully scaled bookkeeping operations. As a result, revenue and profit margins can vary significantly depending on the size and stage of the business. In the early stages of the Rosemary Bookkeeping model, franchisees typically experience higher profit margins, with net profits reaching up to 50%. This is largely due to the low overhead costs associated with starting small and gradually building the client base.
As the franchisee grows and scales their operations, the profit margins tend to adjust. For example, our five-year projections for a fully scaled Rosemary franchise show a turnover exceeding £300,000, with net profits expected to stabilise around 30% of this amount.
The variation across locations or franchise models is influenced by several factors, including market demand, regional competition, and the individual franchisee’s ability to execute their business plan effectively. However, our consistent support, training, and marketing efforts help franchisees optimise their operations and work towards achieving strong financial results. Overall, while there is variation, we provide a framework that allows our franchisees to build a profitable and sustainable business over time.
What is the franchisee renewal rate, and what factors contribute to franchisees choosing to stay with your brand?
The franchisee renewal rate for Rosemary Bookkeepers is consistently well above 90%. We are proud of this high rate, and when a franchisee decides not to renew, we are fortunate to have a 100% re-sale rate, ensuring that the business continues to thrive under new ownership.
One of the key factors that contribute to such strong renewal rates is the collaborative network we’ve built within our brand. From the outset, we emphasise creating a supportive, community-driven environment where franchisees at every stage of their journey can connect, share experiences, and learn from each other. This sense of belonging and mutual support is invaluable to our franchisees, providing them with a resource they can rely on, no matter where they are in their business development.
Additionally, we work hard to ensure that our franchisees receive the ongoing support they need through training, marketing, and operational guidance. This level of support, combined with the collaborative culture, makes it easier for franchisees to stay motivated, profitable and committed to the brand, which in turn contributes to high renewal rates across the network.
What initial and ongoing training programmes do you offer, and how do these adapt to different learning styles and experience levels?
Getting up to speed couldn’t be easier for our newest franchisees through our extensive training academy, offered as part of the franchise fee. This is generally held over five days, with two practical sessions (bookkeeping) and the remainder around all the important business disciplines you’d expect. Upon completion, new Rosemary owners are ready and raring to go. Mindset is essential throughout the journey, and our training is carefully tailored to ensure that we match the aspirations, motivations and determination of the franchise partner with exciting and informative sessions that leave the franchise partner feeling motivated to get going, not with more questions and concerns around operating ‘alone’.
Our training package for our franchisees and the support we offer is all about understanding the goals and aspirations our franchisees have, newer or older, and tailoring our support to fit this. We call this our ‘Forward to Fundamentals’ programme. This involves our Franchise Support Centre staff hosting meetings with franchisees to understand their problems and align our support to solve these, turning them into an opportunity. This can be a small goal or a larger one, from anything to ‘I want to focus on growing a specific client base’ to ‘I want to retire by 2027 and need support to make sure my business is in a good place to sell or be succeeded’. We then work closely with our franchise partners to support them informed by an understanding of their goals. The personalised approach ensures that they remain engaged and focused on their objectives, whether planning for an exit strategy or building a stronger team that allows them to step back from day-to-day operations.
One of the final modules of our training academy is the ’12-week plan’. This is based on the business model and their personal goals and aspirations. This detailed week-by-week plan demonstrates what needs to be completed each week to maintain momentum. Leaders within our team also book regular check-ins to check in on progress. There is little opportunity to fall behind with this level of planning and support.
How do you assist franchisees with site selection, lease negotiation, and setting up their business premises (if appropriate)?
One of the great things about Rosemary as a franchisee opportunity is that premises are not essential from day one. Working remotely and visiting clients onsite is a great way to get started in business and allows franchisees to maximise profits in the early days of their business so they can scale up fast. We support all safeguarding training and ensure our franchisees are comfortable and prepared to meet clients in this way. If or when a franchisee grows in a way that would be beneficial to obtain office space then we certainly support any franchisee that makes that decision. Firstly, we would look at their current business model and see what changes need to take place to support the extra cost of any premises and also look to understand the potential impact on the business growth both positively or negatively before a decision is made. Once this has been thoroughly considered we can support any franchisee in location viewings, negotiations and legal support to set up a suitable premise
What marketing and advertising support do you provide, and how do you help franchisees tailor their approach to their local market?
Franchisees can contact our experienced head office support team for help on any issues around brand-specific queries and questions and are encouraged to hold regular 1-2-1 meetings with our Senior Marketing Executive for monthly marketing support meetings. So, whether they need to target specific areas with leaflets, print ads, Google Ads or other sources of lead generation and marketing, they receive tailored support and strategies for their area and business from a trusted expert.
We support franchisees with PR, awards, editorial, social media and video creation, helping franchisees expand into new or alternative routes to market and create engaging content that puts their business front and centre of their community’s consciousness. This allows them to develop their offering and connect with clients. Our approach centres on the thesis that ‘people buy from people’. Therefore, we utilise targeted and personalised content marketing that helps franchisees form relationships and achieve proven results in their marketing and lead-generation efforts. This is strategically optimised and targeted through data measured through various sources monthly).
Our focus is on communication and ensuring we have a clear focus and goals to keep franchisees engaged. These include all aspects of the business, including practical operations, business, administration, finance, legal, marketing, HR, and IT; communicated via franchise support staff through regular email communications, network WhatsApp groups and face-to-face meetings. We deliver regular communications tailored to each person’s area of expertise. These are based on adaptable but structured ‘COMMs plans’ that have planned our steer for franchisee focus and campaigns into 2025, with a heavy emphasis on helping businesses meet crucial deadlines and HMRC initiatives such as Making Tax Digital (MTD).
Our biggest innovation and USP is that of Teri Cotta, our mascot, who joined the team in 2022. Teri Cotta came to life through our marketing team and was named by one of our fans through a Facebook competition. Our marketing intent is to bring personality to our brand and break down the barrier of the financial world being known as bland. The initiative is the cornerstone of what we do, living up to the Rosemary ethos and USP of being the friendly, local bookkeeping service. This includes our helpful video knowledge banks (Teri’s Tips), where we share interesting content with businesses to solve their problems; Teri Travels, where our lovable toy visits countries/locations worldwide to share facts about them; and Teri Talks, the opportunity for Teri Cotta to gain further admiration and respect through approaching sensitive subjects such as mental health.
Franchisee Network and Operations:
Are there opportunities for networking and collaboration among franchisees, such as conferences, regional meetings, or online forums?
Yes, we offer several opportunities for networking and collaboration among franchisees. We regularly host forum-style events designed to facilitate interaction between our franchisees, business leaders, marketing teams, and external partners and suppliers. These sessions provide valuable hands-on experiences, offering actionable guidance, problem-solving solutions, and key training. To ensure maximum engagement and commitment, attendance at these events is mandatory for our franchise partners.
Throughout the year, we organise two face-to-face full-day forums at our head office. Additionally, we host four virtual stand-up sessions each financial quarter, which last a few hours and focus on condensed content. In response to the growing demand for continuous learning, we are excited to introduce monthly virtual learning sessions starting in 2025. These sessions will cover a broad range of topics, from financial management software to business development techniques, catering to the diverse needs of our franchisees.
Furthermore, we have an active WhatsApp group where franchise partners can easily exchange best practices, celebrate successes, and seek help with challenges. This online platform fosters open communication and ongoing collaboration, ensuring our franchisees are well-supported in their business journey. Overall, we are committed to creating a network that promotes knowledge-sharing and mutual growth among our franchise partners.
Can you describe your company culture and values, and how these are reflected in the franchisee network?
In line with the values of the brand and the narrative of our mascot, our mission as a friendly, local bookkeeping service is to make bookkeeping accessible to all. The goal of our mascot, within her fiction, is to travel the UK and then the world, make new friends, learn new things and use her passion for bookkeeping to work with local business owners to support them with their finances.
We, therefore, encourage franchisees to incorporate their community and personality into their brand, creating a strong and meaningful local presence. We support franchisees’ engagement with their communities through sponsorships, charity work and networking.
Our centralised PR specialists support any local activities that our franchise business owners or we as a network undertake. Our business owners are encouraged to employ local people with working-from-home opportunities to focus on parents who want to work around school hours, resulting in a reliable and motivated workforce locally. Giving back to the local community is a top priority for our network, and we love hearing about how they have contributed themselves. For example, one of our franchise owners celebrates special events such as Diwali by helping to put on special events attended by up to 500 guests to enjoy food, dancing and celebrations. This is all part of the Indian cultural association within her area called ICA (Indian Cultural Association).
We further contribute to the general public by positioning ourselves as a ‘thought leader in finance’. The financial world is a scary place, particularly with the prospect of some mistakes leading to fines or custodial sentences. Rosemary intends to break the ceiling around this by sharing helpful information and insight around tax deadlines, MTD, reporting and any other helpful advice we feel confident sharing. We facilitate this by sharing content via our website and social media channels using Teri Tips. We use our friendly Mascot, Teri Cotta, to put personality into what could be considered a ‘boring’ subject. Instead, our digital mascot and her friendly voiceovers share information to make even the ‘dullest’ subjects comprehensible.
What financing options are available to potential franchisees, and do you have relationships with any preferred lenders?
As a brand of ServiceMaster, we’re able to support prospective Rosemary Bookkeeping Franchise Partners with their investment via several finance partner relationships that we hold. Following a conversation to understand the prospective franchise partners’ situation we’re able to make a recommendation to one of the three High Street Banks we hold a relationship with, who will provide up to 70% of the investment including working capital or we can make a recommendation to our partners who are the 2nd largest provider of the Government backed Start Up Loans Scheme who will provide lending of up to £25,000 per Director of the business to a total of £100,000.
What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you track for franchisees, and how do you use this data to provide support and guidance?
We request each franchise submit monthly data covering their business’s turnover and client numbers. We also follow closely online reviews and social media activity for strong engagement and positive feedback. With this data as Brand Leader, I look to have one-on-one discussions with every franchise partner to create a bespoke plan in place to maximise the success and build on the areas of improvement to maximise the return on efforts. Alongside this, we track PR activity localised for each franchise partner’s territory to provide opportunities for exposure for their business and the Rosemary brand as a whole.